Relativity (episode)
:For other meanings of "Relativity", please see Relativity. Seven of Nine is recruited by a starship from the 29th century to save Voyager from being destroyed in the past. Summary 2371 Captain Janeway beams aboard the starship . Admiral Patterson is there to greet her with a pop quiz. After Janeway answers all of his questions correctly, Patterson shows her around her new ship. When they reach the bridge, Janeway starts to comment on how it is bigger than she expected. When she begins proposing changes to Voyager already, she and the admiral start to get into a conversation, while an Ensign walks away from the helm. The ensign is Seven of Nine. Seven of Nine is seen scanning the bridge and the observation lounge with a small, sleek tricorder. She hides the tricorder when Janeway and Patterson come in the observation lounge. When they leave, she continues scanning, then leaves for engineering. There, she enters a Jefferies tube and locks it. She starts scanning again. She contacts someone, telling them that she localized the weapon's source. Opening a hatch inside the tube, she sees a strange device inside it. The people she is in contact with tell her to begin a procedure. She attempts to remove it, but cannot because the device is out of phase. on Voyager's bridge]] Meanwhile, Janeway and Patterson find a malfunction in an EPS relay. When Janeway cannot just fix it remotely, she goes to the Jefferies tube, which she finds is locked from the inside. Patterson and Janeway go to another deck to access the tube. Seven of Nine detects them and discontinues her procedure. We then see another starship, apparently very advanced. The Captain of this new ship says to pull her out, even when they have trouble locking on to her, saying that if Janeway and Patterson find her, then it will contaminate the timeline. They beam her through time onto their ship; she falls unconscious. One of the officers goes to check on her, but she is dead. When Janeway and Patterson reach the tube, Janeway only finds a strange chroniton flux of .003. Since Seven is dead, the Captain orders to recruit her again. The XO, Lieutenant Ducane, orders a new time index in the Delta Quadrant, target: USS Voyager. 2375 The Doctor is examining Seven of Nine for symptoms of blurry vision and dizziness, which she believes are symptoms of Albright-Salzman syndrome. The Doctor concludes that she in fact has a mild case of sensory aphasia, which he clears up. The Doctor then returns to sickbay. Tom Paris is walking through the corridors doing a ping-pong exercise. He invites Seven to be on his team for a ping-pong tournament because his other team member had come down with space sickness. She accepts and Paris continues his exercises. The tournament takes place in the mess hall against Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres, with Neelix keeping score. Just as Paris hits the ping-pong really hard, it stops in the middle of the table in mid-air. Seven scans the table and detects a temporal anomaly. Seconds later, the ball shoots back towards Kim and Torres. Tuvok, Janeway, and Seven then find that temporal anomalies are occurring all over the ship and will soon tear the ship apart. Seven and Torres start looking for the source of the anomalies, while the Captain tells the Doctor about them, and that they are causing a large number of cases of space sickness. Neelix then calls the Doctor to the mess hall because Ensign Mannus is violently ill. Once there, Neelix greets him as if nothing was wrong. He asks Neelix where the medical emergency is. Neelix says that everything was fine there. At that moment, Mannus falls unconscious. The Doctor diagnoses him with space sickness then revives him. He then starts to put it all together. He checks the time in the mess hall and in sickbay. Sickbay is several minutes ahead of the mess hall. Neelix had not made his call to sickbay yet. Chakotay reports to Janeway, who just had three day old replicated coffee. As it is apparent, the distortions are interfering with food replicators. Janeway then decides to input security measures. As Chakotay explains that turbolifts are malfunctioning and everyone is forced to use the Jefferies tubes, the distortions accelerates his conversation by a few seconds. Meanwhile, Torres and Seven found the source of the anomalies. It was coming from a device in the Jefferies tube that only Seven can see with her optical implant. They tell the Captain, who is ready to initialize a set of force fields to counteract the anomalies. The plan fails and the hull starts to breach. Just then, two men from the unknown ship beam in, giving off a similar chroniton flux from five years ago, spacedock. The captain orders all hands to abandon ship. As Seven moves to an escape pod, she sees the two men. She tells them to identify themselves. They ignore her and place a device on her which beams the three of them away. Seconds later, an outside view of Voyager shows it looking very blurry and being split apart before it explodes with almost everyone on it. The 29th century Seven is on board the ship seen earlier in the episode. The captain, Braxton, welcomes her to the Federation timeship Relativity. They explain to Seven that Voyager has just exploded due to a saboteur putting a temporal disruptor on the ship. They suggest to Seven that the saboteur transported onto Voyager while Voyager's shields were down in an attack by the Kazon. Seven agrees to help them prevent Voyager's destruction. Ducane tests her on all things about time, such as the Pogo paradox, when the Borg tried to prevent the Federation from ever existing, incidentally creating it. Braxton orders her to avoid contact with Janeway if at all possible, for she has made more temporal violations than anyone in history and sticks her nose where it doesn't belong: hence he calls it the Janeway Factor for he had to fix up three major temporal incursions. He also mentions the timeframe he was stuck in for thirty years. Ducane then uses a technology to hide her Borg implants. 2372 Voyager is under attack by the Kazon. In a corridor, Seven of Nine beams aboard Voyager. She starts scanning for the weapon immediately. Harry Kim, however, detects her transport as a 0.003 chroniton flux and places a force field around the area. Like her three years later counterpart, Janeway and Tuvok both go to where she is trapped. On the timeship, Ducane tries to pull her out, but the force field is interfering with the transport and communications. Janeway and Tuvok find her and she is forced to explain who she is. Braxton starts to get angry, insisting that Ducane beam her out, but they still cannot. Seven tries to avoid telling Janeway the truth, due to the Temporal Prime Directive. But Janeway doesn't care and demands answers. Tuvok then detects hidden Borg implants so Janeway orders a search for nearby vessel. Seven insists there are none so, TPD or not, she tells her the truth. Seven convinces Janeway to free her to help prevent the destruction of Voyager in the future. They quickly go to the Jefferies tube where the weapon should be. Janeway, Tuvok, and Seven enter and find a man trying to place the disruptor in the tube. It turns out to be an older Captain Braxton. On Relativity, Braxton is extremely surprised. The saboteur Braxton explains that this will complete their mission. He had suffered from temporal psychosis, having lost his rank which he blames on Voyager. The current Braxton tells his "younger" self that once Voyager is obliterated, he will heal. The Braxton on the Relativity tells Ducane to beam himself aboard, but the older Braxton had activated a dispersal node to avoid beaming. Ducane accuses the captain of sabotaging Voyager, and places him under arrest for crimes he is going to commit. Just as Seven of Nine is about to capture the older Braxton, he beams off Voyager. Seven then transports to where Braxton beamed to: back to 2371. 2371 again As Janeway and Patterson walk down a corridor, Seven and Braxton come running through. Seven shoots Braxton, but misses. Seven starts to suffer from temporal psychosis and starts to drift out of consciousness. But she beams herself to where Braxton now is: 2375. 2375 again In the mess hall, the ping-pong tournament is occurring. Braxton suddenly runs through and Seven, almost unconscious, walks in and disables Braxton's tricorder, trapping him in 2375. She then falls to the ground. The Seven of Nine in this timeline walks up to her counterpart, asking her to explain herself. Seven's counterpart tells the other Seven to stop Braxton because their future depends on it. After Relativity beams the incapacitated Seven away, the other Seven captures Braxton. When Janeway arrives, she comments that she remembers Braxton from 2372. Relativity beams Braxton away. They then beam Janeway to their ship. Back on Relativity Ducane starts to explain to Janeway all that had happened. He explained that there is a Braxton in their brig and a Braxton on their bridge. They ask Janeway to go back to 2372 to completely fix the timeline. Seven's attempts to remove the device have introduced several noticeable temporal incursions. She started a firefight on spacedock, interacted with Janeway's three years younger self and spoke to her six minute ago younger self during a ping-pong tournament in front of 15 crew members. By capturing Braxton before the device is planted these changes will be removed. Seven cannot do it because she might damage herself. Janeway is confused, especially with the second Seven. Ducane assures her that by the end of the day, there will be only one Seven. The Braxtons will soon be reintegrated in time for the trial. The Braxton on the bridge tells Janeway where he will be in that timeline and Janeway is transported to 2372. 2372 again Janeway is beamed aboard during the Kazon attack on Voyager. She encountered Torres en route, telling her to do what she think is right in Engineering. When she nears the corridor where Braxton will beam in, she hides from her three years younger self. Almost immediately, she finds Braxton beaming aboard. He stumbles over a wounded crewman. At that moment, Janeway walks over to him and captures him. Back again on Relativity Back on Relativity, Ducane commends Janeway for capturing the last Braxton and making a small incursion of 0.036. He then is ready to send Seven of Nine and Janeway back to 2375's Voyager, reintegrated with their past selves. He strictly reminds them to remember the Temporal Prime Directive: discuss your experiences with no one. Yet he tells her one thing: Braxton was right that Voyager appears on the Relativity's sensors too often and they should avoid time travel. They then beam back to the 2375 Voyager. Memorable Quotes "Tempus fugit." : Ducane, to Braxton "Long time no see" : - Braxton, to Ducane when Braxton was beamed back to the Relativity after being apprehended by Seven of Nine in 2375 "So, in a way the Federation owes its existence to the Borg?" "You're welcome." : - Ducane and Seven of Nine "What is the threshold of the H2 molecule?" "14.7 electron-volts" "Third brightest star in Orion?" "Viewed from where?" "Earth." "Gamma Orionis or Bellatrix if you prefer the original Arabic name." "Not bad. Now give me a hug Katie, that's an order." : - Admiral Patterson quizzing Captain Janeway "See you in the 24th century." "I look forward to it. Or should I say backward?" "Don't get started!" : - Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine, about returning to Voyager from the 29th century "I gave up trying to keep my tenses straight years ago." : - Captain Braxton "... and I ended up stranded in the late 20th century. Have you ever been to that time frame?" "No." "Well, I don't recommend it. After three decades with those post-industrial barbarians, I had to go through extensive rehabilitation before I could return to duty." : - '''Captain Braxton' talking to Seven of Nine "We have a saying in our line of work: There's no time like the past." : - Captain Braxton, to Seven of Nine "Seven of Nine to Seven of Nine, status." : - Seven of Nine "So let me get this straight, I'm going to go back in time to catch Braxton, but you already have him?" "We have another one in the brig." : - Captain Janeway and Ducane "Let's get started before my headache gets any worse." : - Captain Janeway, regarding the confusing nature of her time travel mission. "Needless to say we need to clean up the timeline. Someone must go back to the beginning and prevent the chain of events from ever occurring in the first place." "I can't make another jump without damaging myself." "...I get the feeling I'm about to be drafted." : - Ducane, Seven of Nine, and Janeway, aboard the timeship Relativity after capturing Captain Braxton Background Information *Captain Braxton, last seen in Season 3 ( ), returns. He is, however, played by a different actor in this episode, with Bruce McGill replacing Allan G. Royal. *Lieutenant Joe Carey, last seen in Season 1 ( ), also returns, unfortunately, his scenes take place before Voyager is lost in the Delta Quadrant. He is not seen again until . *This is the first episode in which we are taken to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. The fleet yards were seen previously in a picture in and as a holographic simulation in *In a continuity error, Admiral Patterson and Captain Janeway activate the EMH program, however, in , The Doctor claims he was first activated during the medical crisis in . Although it is possible that the EMH program was "reset" to factory specs when Voyager was launched. *Some minor cosmetic changes were made to the Voyager sets for the fourth season; for example, the trim on the briefing room table as well as the ready room desk was changed from a gray to green. However, the scenes from this episode that take place prior to show the newer set colors. *When Captain Braxton suggests that Seven of Nine be recruited again after her death, Lieutenant Ducane informs him that this would be her fourth jump. Once recruited, however, Braxton informs Seven of Nine that this is only the third time she has been removed from her time frame. *Captain Janeway has spoken many times about her desire to avoid time travel and paradoxes, once stating that one of her goals in life was to avoid time travel, but as Lieutenant Ducane points out, Voyager has been involved in several time incursions during its time in the Delta Quadrant. *Braxton mentions that Janeway and Voyager are involved in three major temporal events. The first is clearly a reference to while the second is a more subtle reference to . The third is never clearly explained but one can speculate that it refers to the events of . He might also be referring to (though the latter two were resolved without the Relativity's intervention), or possibly the events of "Relativity" (this episode) itself. *Braxton claims to remember being stranded in the 20th century in this episode, despite having claimed to Janeway at the conclusion of that he "never experienced that timeline." This could be a side-effect of Braxton's temporal psychosis, although the episode does not provide any definite explanation. *In , Janeway says she needs Tom Paris to help locate Maquis bases. However, in this episode, she says she wants him because of his piloting skills, even though he never flew the ship once in the Badlands. *This episode features the fifth time Voyager is completely destroyed. "Relativity" also includes the eighth of many times Janeway "dies" in the series. On this occasion, when Braxton succeeds in destroying Voyager. *The phaser that Seven of Nine uses against Braxton is of the same type seen in in the phaser fight outside of the LA Observatory. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 5.12, . :This is the final ''Voyager volume released by CIC Video. Paramount Home Entertainment would release the remainder of the series, following CIC's dissolution.'' *As part of the VOY Season 5 DVD collection. Links and references Guest stars *Bruce McGill as Braxton *Dakin Matthews as Patterson *Jay Karnes as Ducane Co-star * Josh Clark as Lieutenant Carey Uncredited co-stars * Tarik Ergin as Ayala * Richard Sarstedt as William McKenzie * Unknown actors as: ** Timothy Lang ** Mannus References 47; Albright-Salzman syndrome; Bellatrix; Borg; cerebral cortex; Chapman, William; chroniton; class 9 warp drive; Cochrane, Zefram; coffee; containment generator; Dali Paradox; dispersal node; Dekares sector; drydock; electron volt; EPS manifold; EPS relay; fractal calculus; holomatrix; hydrogen; inaprovaline; inertial damper; internal chronometer; Jameson, Anna; Janeway Factor; Kazon; tricyclic input manifold; memory engram; metric ton; navigational sensor; ocular implant; Orion (constellation); ping-pong; Pogo Paradox; sensory aphasia; space sickness; space-time fracture; spatial charge; Takara Sector; TCARS; temporal disruptor; temporal distortion; temporal incursion; temporal inversion; temporal paradox; Temporal Prime Directive; temporal psychosis; temporal transporter; temporal threshold; tempus fugit; time travel; timeship; tricorder; torpedo; Utopia Planitia; Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards; visual acuity index Starship references ; ''Enterprise'', USS (NCC-1701-E); ; ''Fredrickson'', USS; ; ; Kazon carrier vessel; Kazon raider; ; ''Relativity'', USS; ; ; ; Workbee See also * List of time travel episodes * List of VOY recurring character appearances |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Zeitschiff „Relativity“ fr:Relativity nl:Relativity